


made in 2006

by protect_rosie



Series: forget me not [6]
Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Mob, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-14
Updated: 2017-02-14
Packaged: 2018-09-23 20:59:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9676727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/protect_rosie/pseuds/protect_rosie
Summary: five times alex knows he’s in love w nicky and one time he says it out loud





	

**Author's Note:**

> ive wanted to do a companion piece to [ubd](http://archiveofourown.org/works/7790743) for a long time, maybe since i finished writing it and ive just now finally written it, that being said this _can be read as a stand alone_ but itll make more sense if u read ubd and [lpts](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9303764/chapters/21087914) first
> 
> i have something planned for the next part to this series ~~but i dont know what pairing to write it for,,, who would u guys like to read something abt? the pairings i was thinking about either jeff/mike (until mike signs w another team hes still a cap in my mind ok), wilso/latts (once a cap always a cap), or carlzner,,, let me know in the comments~~ **edit 17.02.2017** : i decided to go on w my original plan of writing a jeff/mike bc it would lead in really well to the piece i have planned for after that
> 
> im really happy w the way this piece came out and i hope u guys enjoy it too
> 
> title from _570_ by motionless in white (bc i just thought itd be so darn clever considering nicky got drafted by the caps in 2006)

**01**

Alex falls in love with Nicky the moment he sets his eyes on him. There’s just something about the seemingly quiet nature of him that immediately grabs his attention. It’s like they’re polar opposites of a magnet, destined to come back together, unable to stay away. Or maybe it’s like two long lost souls coming back together after a long time of being apart, finding each other through the many difficulties that set them apart in the first place. 

Really, it’s when Nicky shakes his hand for the first time that Alex knows they’re going to be something special. And it’s when they close out their first deal together that Alex knows they’re going to be something special for a long time. 

He falls in love with the way Nicky handles himself during that deal, falls in love with the way he speaks, how at times he seems unsure of the words he’s using. Alex wants to laugh a little, not that his English is any better. Nicky looks more confident when they shake hands with the Pittsburgh Family, though, like consolidating the deal gave him the answers to being successful.

“Good job,” Alex says, pulling Nicky into a side hug. They’re not really at the stage where Alex can full-on hug him, but maybe after this, they’re getting closer. “Still nervous?”

“Not really,” Nicky replies, a small smile lighting up his face. “We both do good job.”

Alex doesn’t let go until they reach the car.

  
  


+++++

 

**02**

Nicky’s always there when the Boss of the Family starts giving him more responsibility, bigger deals to close out. He’s there to tell him that he’s doing a good job or comfort him after a deal gets lost. Nicky’s also there to make Alex laugh, whispering snarky comments under his breath at League meetings. He’s a shoulder to lean on when Alex is feeling tired or overworked. 

He’s always there. 

And maybe that’s what makes Alex fall more in love with him. 

That’s not to say that Alex  _ only  _ loves Nicky  _ because  _ he’s always there. No, he also loves everything about him. Alex loves Nicky’s golden hair, how it shines in the light, and how it always seems to be in the perfect balance of messy and perfectly styled. He also loves his nose, his eyes, and his roundish face. Alex also loves Nicky’s voice, how steady it is even in stressful situations. It gives him a source of comfort that no one else has been able to provide for him in his life. 

Nicky’s there through thick and thin, through heartbreak and bliss, through ups and downs. 

//

It’s difficult to meet people outside of the League. It’s especially difficult to meet people  _ to date  _ outside of the League. Most people don’t want to be involved with someone in such a dangerous business; they don’t want the worry that comes with not knowing if your partner is coming back or not. 

So Alex lies, once. He thinks it goes well for most of the duration of the relationship.

Until. Until she finds out about what he really does. 

Maria shows up at the Family home, eyes betraying how angry she is. 

“Surprised?” she asks, arms crossed, foot tapping the ground quickly. “Think I not find out?”

Everyone leaves the living room as quickly as they can, shutting the door that leads to the backyard. 

“Uh,” Alex says, defeated. “Come in.”

Alex inhales a long breath as Maria walks inside. Her face is softer now, arms at her side. 

_ “I can’t believe you lied to me like this,”  _ she says, switching to Russian.  _ “You really thought I would be stupid enough to be oblivious to this forever?” _

_ “It’s not that I wanted to lie to you,”  _ Alex replies.  _ “It’s really hard to find somebody when you do the work that I do. I thought you would only give me a chance if I lied to you about my work. I’m sorry that I lied.” _

_ “You were right, though, I can’t put myself at risk, especially not now that I’m about to become a teacher. For crying out loud, Alex, what were you thinking? Something could have happened to my students, oh my god.” _

_ “I’m sorry.” _

_ “Just please, leave me alone, and go on your way. I’m sure you’ll find someone else soon.” _

She leaves as fast as she came in, leaving no trace of her behind but the sound of her car driving away and the kisses they shared in it. The thought of her leaving doesn’t hurt as much as Alex had expected it to; it just leaves him with a sense of  _ oh, there she goes  _ and nothing else. Maria leaving does kind of leave him feeling a little less energetic, though. 

He stands there watching the door for what feels like a long time. He doesn’t hear Nicky come in, doesn’t really feel him wrap his arms around him. Alex doesn’t pay attention to the things Nicky says, but he’s sure they’re words of comfort, of encouragement. 

He loves him that much more in that instant. 

  
  


+++++

  
  


**03**

No one’s surprised when Alex is named new Boss of the Washington Family. Not even Alex himself. After all, no one’s ever accused him of being modest. Everyone does seem to be happy in reaction to the news; all of them congratulate him during the course of the night. 

“I knew it was going to be you.”

Nicky hands him a cup of what smells to be rum and coke. 

“Not best drink you ever give,” Alex says in lieu of a thanks. “Thanks.”

“No prob-”

“Thanks for be there for me all the time. Not have this without you, you know. Best business partner.”

Nicky gives him a shy smile in reply.

//

The first gathering after someone murders John is a solemn affair. No one smiles, and everyone looks at the ground like its responsible for John not being with them anymore, like it could’ve done something to prevent the tragedy. And maybe they’re silly for thinking the fucking floor could’ve done something different, but the world of hurt everyone’s in prevents them from seeing it.

Maybe that’s what makes him do it.

Alex calls for everyone’s attention. Once he’s sure everyone’s looking at him, he begins. First, he thanks everybody for their attention; he almost thanks them for being with him tonight, but then remembers, they all live there anyway. Second, he tells John’s family that he’s very sorry for their loss, and apologizes for all the things he didn’t do. Alexandria, John’s widow, tells him that he did all he could. And then, finally, he tells not only everyone, but John’s family especially that he’s going to find who did this to him, and that he’s going to make them suffer for everything they did to John.

He hugs John’s family close, making sure they know he’s for real. 

Nicky approaches him after his speech.

_ “That was very good,”  _ he tells him in his limited Russian.  _ “I’m proud of you.” _

Alex appreciates Nicky’s effort, but his pronunciation isn’t very good yet; it’s hard to understand. 

“Was not easy,” Alex replies, switching back to English, patting Nicky on the shoulder. “Am new head of Family, so have to do eventually, but not mean easy. Mean every word I say, though - I will kill John’s  _ ubiytsa.” _

Nicky smiles and says, “I’ll help hide the body.”

//

Someone, Alex can’t really tell who does it, starts playing music halfway into the night. For the first minutes, the songs are bouncy, loud and happy. Slowly, they turn into slower, softer songs, those made for couples dancing during a romantic moment. 

Alex doesn’t have anyone anymore, so he asks Nicky to dance with him. Nicky blushes, but accepts to dance with him almost immediately. Alex is careful with Nicky, afraid he might break him somehow. He knows it’s impossible to break Nicky - Nicky’s strong and steady, built like a freaking brick house. Alex doesn’t see him that way; he sees Nicky as someone he wants to protect all the time. 

They dance close to each other. Left, right. Left, right. Left, right. 

Seeing Nicky’s face gets to be too much, and eventually, near the end of the song, Alex gently pushes Nicky’s head onto his shoulders. The way Nicky goes so easily shouldn’t make Alex love him any more, but it does. It makes his heart swell with affection. 

“This was nice,” Nicky says, awkwardly pulling back. 

“It was,” Alex replies, dumbly. “It really was.”

The smile Nicky gives him shouldn’t make Alex want to kiss it off, but it does, it really does. 

  
  


+++++

  
  


**04**

Alex gets together with Anastasiya, a girl from the same town as him, a couple of months before Nicky’s twenty fifth birthday. He’s learned his lesson from his time with Maria, so this time he doesn’t tell Nastya anything. Doesn’t even let her bring up the topic of work when they’re together. He avoids it at all costs, even if it makes him seem like an asshole sometimes. 

She lets it drop after a while, doesn’t bring it up again. Alex is thankful.

Alex likes Nastya a lot, almost too much, which is why he’s so desperate to keep her by his side. And, sure, he should let her know about his job, but he doesn’t want things to end the same way they did with Maria. It would hurt too much.

//

Things don’t go so well for the Family, for the League in general, for a while. Outside competition pressures the League to find more ways to make more money. Sources even make it known that outsiders are having talks with the Pennsylvania and Michigan Families, talks that involve those two Families leaving the League. 

The League would lose a lot if those Families left, they would lose so much; loses they can’t afford. 

The pressure intensifies so much that it makes everyone more stingy, more closed off. Everyone still deals with each other, but they don’t stay for drinks after, they don’t hang around talking about good times - they just shake hands and go their separate ways. 

Nicky’s visibly angry when they get home after closing out a deal with the Philly Family. Alex doesn’t have a clue why, and he’s a bit afraid to ask - he and Nicky haven’t been having the best of days lately. Besides, he knows Nicky’ll tell him soon enough. 

“I can’t believe you were being so friendly with them,” Nicky says as soon as they walk in the house after coming home. “Do you really think they have this Family’s best interest in mind when they’re making those deals? They fucking don’t.”

Alex can’t say he’s surprised when Nicky finally snaps, but he’s a little taken aback. In the entire time they’ve known each other, Nicky’s never directed curse words at Alex when he’s angry. 

“Ok, I not be so nice to them like you think,” Alex replies, as calm as can be. “I act how I was raised.”

Nicky huffs in annoyance and rolls his eyes. 

“Whatever,” he mumbles. He crosses his arms and sits on the couch, turning away from Alex. 

Alex sits next to him.

“What wrong now?”

“Nothing, everything’s fine.”

There’s something about Nicky being all mad that makes Alex want to laugh, but he doesn’t; he loves Nicky too much. Besides, it’ll probably earn him a knock to the back of the head. Nicky’s strong, Alex doesn’t want to find out just how strong he can be.

//

They’ve got their bags slung over their shoulders, saying goodbye to the Family for the time being, when Marcus pulls Alex aside.

“Take him to Ebba’s place,” Marcus says, handing him a card with numbers on it; probably Ebba’s phone number. He wonders who Ebba is. “Call this number and they will tell you how to get there. Nicky hasn’t been there since he left, and lately, he’s been talking about how much he wants to go there again.”

“Thanks,” Alex says, and pats Marcus on the back. He walks over to Nicky, who’s busy in a conversation with Andre and Holts. He throws an arm over Nicky’s shoulder and asks, “Ready?” 

“Ready,” Nicky smiles.

//

They get to Sweden before dinner. 

Alex drops Nicky off at a hotel, with clear instructions to get ready because  _ we go to best place, favorite place.  _ Nicky looks at Alex like he just invented a new language. He’ll get what Alex said soon enough. 

It turns out Ebba’s place isn’t too far from the hotel. It doesn’t seem too busy, the only people are staff sitting and having dinner. He feels bad when a lady with mostly grey hair stops mid-sentence to get up and tend to him. 

“It’s ok, you can finish,” Alex says. “I just want make sure this place empty in an hour. I bring over very special guest for his birthday.”

He shows the lady a picture of Nicky on his phone.

She holds her hands up to her mouth, and says, “My dear. How do you know him?” 

“Business partner.”

“Of course, this place ghost town when you come back.”

//

Nastya calls twice after dinner, just as Nicky’s about to tell him something, by the looks of it, something really important. The first time, Alex just looks at his phone and puts it right back into his pocket. The second time it’s clear that she’s not going to stop calling until he answers. 

So he does.

He tells her what he did before he left to Sweden, assures her that nothing’s going on between him and Nicky, tells her that his heart belongs to her and no one else. It’s not the whole truth, though, because Nicky’s taken up residence in his heart; he did that a long time ago. 

Nicky shuts down after Alex ends the call, tells him that he’s forgotten what he was going to say. Alex doesn’t completely believe him, but he lets it slide. 

//

Alex breaks up with Nastya the day after he gets back home from Sweden. He doesn’t bring her up again, and nobody asks. 

  
  


+++++

  
  


**05**

Alex dances with Nicky’s niece at their reception. She’s only five years old, and nowhere near tall enough to dance properly, so he lets her stand on his shoes. They’re brand new, ones his mother brought over from Russia. He doesn’t care, though, the smile on Nicky’s face is more than worth the price of the shoes. 

They bow for Nicky when the song ends, earning them claps from Nicky and everyone around them. 

Nicky lays his head on Alex’s shoulder when Alex sits next to him, taking their hands together. 

Alex’s heart feels too big for his chest then.

  
  


+++++

  
  


**+01**

The air returns to Alex’s lungs when he wakes up next to Nicky in their own bed, again. It fills his lungs to know that Nicky’s safe by his side, that Nicky’s not suffering anymore.

“I love you,” Alex says, pulling Nicky closer. “I love you so much.”

  
“I know.”

**Author's Note:**

> -i definitely shouldve clarified this in ubd but the john that gets killed is just some random guy named john and not carly
> 
> comments and kudos are always so very much appreciated!
> 
> reach me over @ bckstrms on tumblr to yell w me abt this series or the caps in general!!!


End file.
